Andrey HoT - "Cold Blooded Murdarah" (Barbitura Re-Hot) (5:02)
DJ 1312 & Dima Pulsar - "Jungle Ting" (4:40)
Barbitura - "Dark Room" (Jungle mix) (4:03)
Review: Sweet murderation! Russian roustabout Andrey HoT gets scorchio on his latest blaze-up for DanJet - 'Cold Blooded Murdarah'. Thing Remarc getting up close with Benny L and that's where we're at. Need more drummage? Roll on for Barbitura's Re-Hot remix. Flip for more Russian rawness; DJ1312 and Dima Pulsar's 'Jungle Ting' has all the edits and Dread bass style reverse warps you could ever need while 'Dark Room' closes the EP with a palpable whiff of tension. Yum.
A Soft Mist Production - "Upside Down Rainbows" (5:01)
Dr Sud - "Zaffiro" (Jazz cut) (3:59)
DatSIM - "Influx" (4:40)
The Rabbit Hole - "Tail Groove" (4:27)
Review: No matter your particular preference in the deep house world, this various artists' outing from Q1E2 Recordings is sure to have something for you. Mike Riveria & Marco Ohboy, for example, tap into an early sound on 'Euphoria' with its big, brash piano stabs and whistles, while A Soft Mist Production keeps it all cuddly and deep with languid chords draped over gentle drums on 'Upside Down Rainbows.' DatSIM brings in some space-tech vibes for a deft rhythm and neon infused sound on 'Influx' and The Rabbit Hole's 'Tail Groove' has a mad double bass sound jumping about beneath frantic jungle breaks.
Review: Back to 93! Two OG pioneers are deep in the lab, cooking up the future - Bizzy B and DJ Zinc. These are two of many blueprints from such a turbulent, primordial era in jungle history. 'Dex Flex' is a sci-fi movie epic in the form of a song... The eerie intro, dramatic militant breaks and the wide screen way it rolls out and develops are powerfully ambitious. We're unsure if it ever actually came out or not, too. 'Getting Down' did come out, however. But not under this title. Due to Zinc being signed with another label, it came out as Bizzy's 'Break Of Dawn'. Still breaking things up to this day, it's a bubbler that never quits. What a flashback.
Review: Good 2 Go, hailing from the UK, deliver another instalment - the third in a trilogy - of the Steel Circuit Chronicles, their most recent series to explore the bleeding edges of drum & bass as we move into the future, or at least, fantastic visions of it. Abandoning any recourse to retroism or conformity, the label boldly depict a futuristic cyborg standing aloft in an eco-urban fantasy on its front cover, and back this up with a sleek cyan splatter record, housing three killer, housing three future-mecha-angelic contemporary drum & bass cuts by Blame, DJ Sappo and Sync Dynamix. The first of said three artists sets the tone with 'Fireside Angel', which subverts the Roman tradition of the household deity with long-held buzzchords and soulful shouts. Then there's 'Can't You See' and 'I Can't Do It Alone', which continue to resound like echoes from a future street-time; the latter track is particularly interesting, opting for an unusually timed bass thrum and deeply affecting synth swells, which contrast to the vocal with a muted sonic chiaroscuro.
Review: Calibre aka Dominick Martin pairs up with DRS, each taking one side of this 12" and each more than holding their own. Martin continues his current obsession with the pure sound of the real piano, a powerful antidote to the more synthetic sounds we're more used to hearing in the genre. Add a supreme male vocal in plaintive mood,. declaring "I've been looking for love in all the wrong places" and you've got something that really stand out of the crowd. Living For by DRS is more of straight anthem, with reggae influences and a hip-hop vocal giving it a proper lighters-in-the-air atmosphere, its conscious lyrics very much echoing the mood of Britain in 2020. Two very different tracks, for sure, but this package is strong in its diversity.
Review: Rarely do garage and jungle ever hear any kind of fusion, but more than several perfect examples can be heard on this latest collab EP between Amy Dabbs and Coco Bryce. The second in their collaborative 'Slightly Involved' series, in which they set out to interpret each other's tracks and production techniques, the likes of 'Decipher' and 'Lust Issues' immediately pique the ears as sweet, engaging fidgeters, not backing down from the emotive swing endemic to the former genre while also playing up the pace of the latter. The A-side's listless synthetic pangs are matched in vibe by the B's comparatively by-the-book, dreamatic dolphinny junglisms, with 'Banshee' going ham on the slice-ups and 'Still You See' oscillating between string-laden suspense and light, downtown sunday-midafternoon breaks.
Review: Four unreleased tracks from 1997 come back to the surface, recasting the luminant talents of Danny C and Mike Pears in a more contemporary light. Alleged to have been preserved on DAT for the last 27 years, there is still a consistent, clean quality to these four bits. Opener 'Blueprint' and its successor 'Dubwise' establish a utilitarian futuristic sound, betraying something of the now less popular sound that bridged jungle to techstep. The vibe on the former track lays down a mechanistic yet jazzy feel, with its semitonic Rhodes chords contrasting well to the track's outlying machinic qualities. 'Looking To The Future' and 'Groove Creator' similarly portray two death-driven, repetitious images of an automatic future.
Review: Uppers & Downers tap the raw, yet-to-be fully processed talents of Yerevan's Dave N.A., for a stunningly angelic nu-breaks come jungle come acid outing. Having co-founded his local Armenian ABC Community DJ collective, Dave N.A. attests his non-applicability to the normal, formal rules of dance music, declaring himself diplomatically immune to boring tempi, drab beats or morose melodies. Instead, the likes of 'Radiance', 'XL', and 'AIR' subject us to some of the most riveting soundscapes and shellages imaginable, drawing on a frenetic confluence of rave and hard bass traditional sonics.
Review: Dylan Brownsword strips things right down to the elements for this exceptional exploration into dub techno influenced drum & bass. Stark futurism that smoulders at its coldest and will have you shivering at its hottest, vibes range from the shimmering Basic Channel style reflections of 'B1' to the more autonomically minded swagger of 'B3'. Trembling with echoes of his powerful techno work in the past, across this whole collection DB1 keeps one foot in the dance, one foot in the stars throughout.
Dead Man's Chest - "Living Real" (Artificial Red remix) (5:41)
L Own X Response - "Rumination Cycles" (7:59)
Eusebeia - "Affinity" (5:44)
Esc - "Hot Hands" (7:11)
Review: Dead Man's Chest is about to unleash all kinds of breakbeat mayhem with the third volume of Western Lore's Blunted Breaks series and here's a little taster of the full flavour experience to expect. Artificial Red kicks off with a hazy-but-heavy remix of DMC's 'Living Real' before L Own & Response's 'Rumination Cycles' enshrouds us with rasping tendrils of acid and loose live drum breaks. Flip for two more breath-taking moments in (blunted) breakcraft as Eusebeia captures that early Good Looking magic on 'Affinity' and ESC closes the EP with the powerful, cobweb blast celebration of hardcore's influence on 'Hot Hands'. Get blunted!
Review: Alex Eveson aka Dead Man's Chest is the man behind the Bristol-based Western Lore label, which is a trusted source of some mad cap jungle. The man himself is back with more such sounds here, starting with the impassioned vocal cries and soulful pad work of 'How U Wanna Do This Baby?'. The vibes keep flowing when 'U Don't Know Me' drops with some old school piano energy and unrelenting amen breaks. It's controlled chaos with great filter work building the tension and 'How U Wanna (Jungle edit)' shuts down with hyper speed drums and devastating snare work while the angelic vocal tones soar.
Review: On a mission to "make d&b great again", Finland's Straight Up Breakbeat pass through once more with the second of three EPs formed to showcase modern junglism. Kicking off, 'Mystery Machines' sees Glastonbury's Dead Mans Chest slam down some deadly amen choppage reinforced by haunting vocal FX and paranoid drones. Aeon Four & FFF's 'Look Inside' is a jungle-tekno roller, served with chunky hardcore style amens and a side of warm old-skool pads. Keeping the mid-90s vibe alive, the tripped out 'Green Fields Forever ' from Fanu - which drops hot on the heels of his greatly received remaster of Source Direct's 'Stars' - delivers airtight amen trickery, weaving synth washes and blissful dubby basslines. Esc & Mineral round things off with 'Photosynthesis', a pensive stepper highlighting cut-up breaks waltzing with cheeky synth nudges and a wide, rugged bassline. If the pioneers had buried some beefed-up tracks in a time-capsule to inspire future generations, they would probably sound a lot like 'States of Art II'.
Review: Exclusive! Over Shadow unleash these two super-hot rarities from around 93/94. Both big tunes on dubplate at the time, especially 'Close Your Eyes' which was a big tune in Fabio's early Speed sets, they finally see the vinyl light of day after all these years. 'Close Your Eyes' is a beautiful atmospheric whirlwind while 'Destroyer VIP' lived up to its name. Still sounding heavier than a helicopter over 30 years later.
Review: It's metallic sound effects and mech whirrs aplenty on this new Deft release for Hooversound; such are just a small descriptive sample of the many crazy sound effects worked into their take on the electro form. Billed as a "familiar favourite" on their roster, 'Burna' hears Deft do exactly what it says on the obi strip, blazing a trail of serious apocalyptic heat by a five-way exploration in breakbeat. Though here, the palette is overhot and liquid-metallic; it's as if it weren't a human being at the creative controls, but rather a decepticon, in constant transformative flux at the mere promise of future breaks carnage. Seemingly no boundaries between ideas of "drum & bass" and "breakbeat" are felt - any initial sense of separation between the two is ultimately collapsed by the EP's use of temporal / metric variation.
Review: Reissue! Future Retro's 2023 wallop session from Professor Turbo himself Dev/Null get a repress and you'll have to be speedy to cop it. Grounded in more of the breakcore-type circles, 'Deep Love and 'The Cut' are slightly slower than his usual fare, but they sound just as furious and heavy as you'd expect. 'Deep Love' is a big hurricane of tune while 'This Cut' is more techno than it is jungle. Complete with remixes from Sonar's Ghost and Dwarde, this is a veritable rave volcano.
Review: You can always rely on Analogical Force to come through with the heavyweight goods and dgoHn's Portus EP is just that. This deft four-tracker is a study in the mix of light and dark, heavy and airy. 'Enclosed' manages to float on suspensory synths while the busy drums flap below next to splashy hits. 'Kind Of Sort Of Not Really' pairs pensive, inwardly reflective synths with busier drum workouts and 'Nots' heads into jungle territory but with bass so nimble you can't sit still. Closer 'Pox' might be the best of the lot with its moody bass and chords and kinetic, pinging drums.
Review: With 'Vibes', Dutch drum & bass/jungle outfit Cat In The Bag temporarily let the feline out of the case, yet they still retain enough integrity, and rein in the shellage, to the extent that the cat is nonetheless seduced back in after a certain time. Such is the art of alley-cat drum & bass, comparable in mood to "rollage"; it's all about a fine balance of hard-hitting impactfulness and careful vibe-restraint, else the mog'll arch its back and dash off elsewise. No wonder the first tune's called 'Level Vibes'; Dial-M and Msymiakos achieve an intricate, intelligent mood of levity, a belief-suspensory dread zone in which level-headedness serves as a proxy for the execution of a skittish agility, as of a cat. Our feline reccy no less reliably scours the 'Frontline'; amens penetrate hard garrisons of bass and atmoss with relentless keratinous claws, proving retractable paw-blades really can break walls. The B-siders, 'Warehouse Dub' and 'Dub Rock', provide more novelty appeal, preferring to build sound(e-)scapes that both build upon and take flight from the warpath.
Digital & Spirit - "Remote Control" (Kiljoy remix)
Reflection
Restoration
Ras 78 (X Nation remix)
Review: Picture the scene... Digital comes over your yard. You make him a cuppa. You chat beats for a while. Then he leans over and whispers the most dirty thing you could imagine in your ear. You erupt in goosebumps and shiver. Suddenly the sounds of Kiljoy's thundering breaks on the already seminal 'Remote Control' slap your chops so hard your teeth shake and the dubby washes on 'Restoration' are so intense your clothes feel soaked through. And that's just half of this sordid tale. Not to be missed. Spirit RIP!
Review: Silent Force go deep with their latest 12" from London's Dissect. There's a spacious Photekian charm to 'Otonashi' with each drum hit rumbling and shimmering with clarity. Watch out for those pads, too. Massive Attack fans definitely won't miss them. Meanwhile on the B we get even deeper with the dubby, halftime vibes of 'Mind Reading'. Listen as the drum hits space out even further and marvel at yet another lush paddy chord sequence waft into the mix. For the heads. Be thankful for everything you've got.
Review: Strap in for another blistering ride thanks to the Sonic Force crew who has tapped up Dissect and Abstract Illusion for a series of new tunes and remixes of one another. 'Tengoku' (Dissect's Heaven mix) is first up with some thrilling breaks that float just above the dance floor amidst nice lush pads. Dissect's 'Cosmos' then rides a lurching beat with more raw percussion and Abstract Illusion's 'Tengoku' ups the ante with crashing snares and hi-hats, plenty of turbulent rhythms and planning basslines. Dissect shuts down with 'Black Hole' which is a darker stepper with a menace undercarriage that might make it the best cut of the lot.
Review: Russian jungle pioneer Dissident makes his debut on Vivid with four intergalactic tear-ups of the highest order. 'Recover From Solvation' brings the classic Krome & Time vibes - deep space breaks, booming subs and trippy textures. 'Skybound' brings that bounce and those warm feels while 'Theta Phase' takes us deep, deep deep into hyperspace by way of a far away daydream. Last but not least 'Leave Us Lucid' closes on a J Majik style stepper spring. What an EP. If this is the sound of Dissident not quite waking up yet, he needs to stay in bed more often.
Review: Woi and indeed oi, V return to their vinyl-only Legends series where they dig deep into the vaults and pull out key dubplates that never saw the official release light of day. Key dubplates like these two big Bristol bruisers from DJ Die. Both written in 96, Die's Full Cycle rawness and innate sense of groovemanship is present and correct on both sides - the jazzier, busier work-out 'Capers' and the heavier, stripped-back 'Inside' which you can imagine was made in response to some of the game-changing sounds Krust was making at the time. Legendary business.
Review: Following last year's epic Missen/MSDos double header late last year, Violet Night Recordings gear up for their first release of 2023 and it's the bossmen taking control on this one. DJ Flash takes the lead with a strong atmospheric jungle twist where bone-crushing amens burst in and up the energy at all the right moments. Chippie takes the B with a special VIP of his 2021 cut 'Big Grey Wolf'. Now with a fresh set of beats and an added sense of urgency, it's enough to have you howling all night long.
Review: Living life in permanent reload, Flashback's 95 classics 'Gun' and 'Triple Six' are some of the crispest, sharpest, most spacious and far out examples of junglised beat-slicing of their time. Still sounding as disarming and militant as they did 30 years ago, both hit hard with clarity. Those who love a rich warm rootsical sample in the thick of the choppy choppy should head for 'Gun' while those who love swimming neck deep in fractures will fall in love with 'Triple Six'. A stunning reissue from the Vinyl Fanatiks crew.
Review: When we're vexed, we're incensed, we're angry, we're provoked... but when we're "vexxed"? Lord knows what the extra X signifies! First released together in 1993 on Blueprint Records, DJ Fokus' 'Vexxed' and 'Chill Out' scored a bipolar mood of "rage and disengage", revealing intermediary darkside energies in the process. Packed with 70s horror sound motifs, in turn set against crushing industrial breaks, breakbeat hardcore A-sider 'Vexxed' is just as invidious as it was in 93, compartmentalising any raw emotion in favour of pure, furious air-hornage and scattershot breaks. 'Chill Out', sad to say, is hardly a chillout tune, but perhaps the A raised the stakes too high: those FMs are bouncy enough to keep speed forever, and those Reeses could melt the hardest of ices.
Review: Originally released in 1994 and now reissued in 2024, confirming the resurgence of interest in the classic jungle sound, 'Watch Out' is a hard-hitting jungle track with a relentless 'Amen' break, while 'Media' offers a more complex and atmospheric soundscape with a deep, broken bassline.. 'Watch Out' immediately grabs attention with its pounding bassline and heavy drums, the tribal percussion adding an exotic flavor, while the heavy Amen break provides the relentless drive that characterises jungle at its best. The track is relentless and hypnotic, perfectly capturing the energy of the early scene. 'Media,' in contrast, is a more experimental tune. The jungle breakbeats are present, but they are more subdued, providing a backdrop for the track's deep bass notes. Together, 'Watch Out' and 'Media' offer a snapshot of the golden era of jungle music. They are essential listening for anyone interested in the genre's roots and its continuing evolution.
Review: Blissfully layered jazzstep from DJ Fokus and Voyager, two titans of the style whose deft abilities have rightfully nailed them a spot on the brand new label Eternal Soul for their second release. Working in filtered yet booming bass on the A-siders 'Online Recorded' and 'Inteliquo', the tracks work in minimal and downtrodden moods, allowing for more rapid-fire drill n' bass elements to occasionally peek through. The B tracks pick up the pace, 'Aurora' suspending our ears on flos of sonic slush - the 'remastered' version, meanwhile, is much more than a remaster.
DJ Fresh - "Dancing In The Dark" (feat Buunshin) (3:16)
Heavyweight (AMC remix) (4:37)
Review: DJ Fresh is a legend at this point. Whenever he drops new heat it is worth tuning in, especially when it's a 12" picture disc like this from Breakbeat Koas. The A-side is a collab with Buunshin. 'Dancing In the Dark' is a hardcore gem with pitched-up vocals and monstrous breaks over spin backs, raw bass and thrilling synth lacerations. Then comes an AMC Remix of DJ Fresh's 'Heavyweight' that is just that. It rides on silky breakbeats with a rising sense of tension that keeps you locked until the explosive bass and jump-up drum head to the level.
Review: Hospital Records' latest outing is a welcome return to releasing from DJ Hazard, pioneer of ostentatious jump-up drum & bass (of the second, not first, kind; heads will know there might as well have been two movements bearing the name, with the blurring point between them somewhat indistinct, yet the former more definitively jungly than the latter). Here we get stuck in to a four-track lesson in the jump-up sound that most know today: rolling basslines, eerie atmospheres & crunchy drumwork galore. From the opening horror film-sampling 'Behind The Mask' - on which wheezy leads and syncopated snaps steep and wring the mix to a high twisted heaven - to the mid-section sonic dentata 'Drill Bit' and 'Cloud Drift' - on we're met with an illicit power-driven (hopefully just dental) procedure and a clouded liquid miasma respectvely - and to the final 'Break The Silence' - which brings an anti-violence hip-hop sample to a playful excruciation of imp-bass and spit-snare - this is everything befitting of a contemporary Hazard EP, a sure health hazard if we know one.
Review: UK garage goes increasingly wonky on DJ Jackum's latest EP for Time Is Now. Working in Skrillexy sound design - nasal growls, puffy metal snares, thin but heavy mixes - the enigmatic Jackum makes a real racket of a debut here, delivering four genre-poking bangers of a difficult-to-peg style. 'Vibe' is especially anthemic, being a rare example of a garage tune centred largely on the second and fourth beat handclap and not the kick; 'Push Dat' veers more into hooligan rave territory, pushing the to bass bus to redline; and the final 'Pimpin'' offers a crazed shuffle and vocal sample; this is a bold and creative expansion of an existing sound.
Review: Vinyl Fanatiks are coming on strong with their reissues once again as they hit us hard with the latest re-boost of Phantasy's Liquid Wax imprint. A label with a fantastic legacy and a consistency that's largely down to the fact all releases came out of Jack Smooth's Sound Entity jungle techno laboratory, this particular flashback is especially of note as it's one of the earliest productions from Alex Reece (who had just begun working at the studio as an in-house engineer at the time). Both raw and powerful pieces that capture that hardcore transition perfectly, 'Ruffkut' on the jungle side, 'Dope On Plastic' on the techno side. Heavyweight history.
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